


Allow Me My Anger

by mutents



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Injury Recovery, Permanent Injury, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 10:12:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10717359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutents/pseuds/mutents
Summary: The first month is the hardest.





	Allow Me My Anger

The first month is the hardest. Rhodey had never realized how much was out of reach before. Sure, he hadn’t been the tallest guy before the airport, but he’d been able to open the kitchen cupboard for a bowl at 2 a.m.. That was what it mostly was - this sudden loss of half of the world that he’d spent a solid forty years in.

As much as Vision probably felt like he was helping, he really wasn’t. The android followed Rhodey around like a lost puppy. It had been kinda nice for the first 12 hours. After that, it had just been grating. Rhodey understood that much of it was out of guilt, but as much as he’d tried to tell Vision that he didn’t blame him, the android just wouldn’t. Leave. Him. Alone.

And Tony… Tony was trying so hard. Rhodey knew that Tony wasn’t sleeping, and as much as he wanted to help his oldest friend, Rhodey knew that any attempt to help Tony would just be promptly brushed off. On top of that, Rhodey had decided that this was the one time he wouldn’t mind being a little selfish. But, he still went out of his way to make sure Tony didn’t just lock himself away in his labs.

He’d finally reached the tipping point during the first testing of Tony’s bionic-legs, which had been a SNAFU from the very beginning.

The metal bit into his hips, chafing in ways that Rhodey hadn’t felt since Afghanistan. But, he was finally able to stand. Which brought a whole new set of angers with it. His mind had, for some foolish reason, been under the impression that getting vertical was all he need to walk just like he once had. He didn’t know how the hell that had happened - he certainly hadn’t thought that.

Rhodey was placing the blame all on that nasty thing called hope.

Vision had been helping him cross the room when he finally snapped. He shoved the android, knowing that if Vision put his mind to it, that push would do fuck all. But, Vision allowed himself to be pushed away, obviously realizing that what Rhodey needed the most at the moment was space.

“Fucking hell!” Rhodey screamed, letting all of his built up anger out. “This is all such bullshit! I’m walking like it my first goddamn steps! And what the fuck for? For Steve motherfucking Rogers to walk away from it all? To take the pussy route? To hide out in fucking Wakanda, away from the goddamn public eye, while we get stuck with the shit show his team left behind? It’s just so fucking unfair!”

Both VIsion and Tony stayed silent, allowing Rhodey his anger.

“I accepted the risk. I knew that every time I went on a mission, I might not come back. You know what I didn’t accept? Or, more accurately, you know what I never expected? That I would end up in fucking wheelchair because of my own goddamn team!”

Rhodey reached for the vase on the table he had stopped besides, grabbing it and hurling it against the wall.

“And I sure as fuck didn’t sign up for this bullshit!”

Rhodey paused, taking deep breaths to calm himself. He felt more pissed then he ever had - even worse than when he’d found out that Stane was a traitorous bastard. Because as much as he loved Tony, in ways he could never put into words - hell, in ways that words couldn’t even cover - this was different. This was…

This was himself.

And Rhodey had never been this way. He’d never been the type to put himself first. It wasn’t in his DNA. As a kid it had always been his mother, than it had been Tony, then it had been the entire country and Tony, and it had ended with the entire world and Tony.

And after 50 goddamn years, Rhodey felt like he deserved a day where he was the priority. And if being the priority meant that he was allowed to be furious with the series of shit hands he’d been dealt, he’d let himself be the motherfucking priority.

It was a good couple of minutes before Tony finally tried to approach Rhodey, and as the inventor did, Rhodey let himself be wrapped up in Tony’s arms. He dashed his hands at his eyes, unsurprised to find them coming away wet. 

“I was wondering how long it would take for you to finally get angry,” Tony murmured, rocking Rhodey where they stood. “I knew that you hadn’t jumped straight to the acceptance stage - I mean, you’re perfect, but not even you can beat basic psychology.”

“Never thought I’d see the day when you’d give credit to psychologists,” Rhodey replied, wrapping his arms around Tony, his voice broken. “Obviously I’ve been dead for over a month, and this is just some sick demented hell I’ve been put in. Figures I’d be stuck dealing with your sorry ass for eternity,” He said, squeezing Tony even tighter - hoping that his actions would belie his words.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tony said, his own voice heavy with emotions. “I’m a fucking delight.”

Rhodey chuckled, pulling Tony’s head down and giving his forehead a kiss. “Yeah, ya kinda are…”

It wasn’t perfect - he still couldn’t walk, and Tony was still a shit show… But, it was them, and they’d never been perfect. Two kids from MIT, thrown together by nature of their majors and one professor who’d insisted on his students sitting alphabetically. They were two kids who could have been more different - Anthony Stark, the billionaire’s kid and James Rhodes, the third in a long line of military men.

There would be hard days. Hell, every day seemed like it was destined to be a hard day. But, they’d scrape by, just like they had done before. Because they were Iron Man and War Machine, the last of the Avengers. Because they were Anthony Stark and James Rhodes, America’s favorite friends.

Because they were Tony and Rhodey, and they both had forgotten how to get by without the other.

**Author's Note:**

> So, obviously this is probably a little rough - in my defense, I finished writing it a 3:15 am, and started it at like 2:45 am. Also, the timeline is kinda handwavy, but I mean the source material is comic books and it's not like they have a basic understanding of how time works, so...if you’ve got any comments, please share them! I tried to write it realistically, but??? Who knows???
> 
> Also, I think I might have accidentally written Rhodey x Tony????? And honestly, don’t even mind.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
